Tuesday, 7 June 2016

All Too Apparent From The Start

In the age of ‘strivers’ and ‘skivers’, benefit cuts
introduced by the Government have been justified by the need to “make work
pay”.

But the Government’s own research, published this week, has revealed that
one of the cornerstones of the austerity campaign – that cutting benefits means
recipients will be more likely to find work – is fundamentally flawed.

Researchers have found that cutting unemployed peoples’
benefits had the opposite effect to that you might expect.

The study, carried
out by Oxford city council and the Department for Work and Pensions, found
unemployed people becomelesslikely
to get a job when benefits are cut.

Instead of looking for work, they are
forced to devote their energies to surviving day-to-day. For every £1 in
benefits cut per week, a person’s chance of getting a job drops by 2 per cent.

This comes after another study revealed that more than a million
Britons are living in “destitution”, struggling to afford food, toiletries and
travel expenses – all of which can also reduce their job prospects as stressed
and demoralised people attempt to secure work while hungry, lacking basic
hygiene and unable to afford to travel for employment.

The onslaught of welfare cuts
against vulnerable people has been justified by the continued false belief that
unemployed people simply aren’t trying hard enough.

We’re told they are lazy
and workshy, that they need a shock to motivate into accepting one of the many decent
jobs available to them.

That is clearly not the case.

The “dependency culture” in which
unemployed working class people are claimed to live is simply a myth – and yet
the Government seems willing to actively create it.

Many people on unemployment
benefits are living on the poverty line, and a significant number have already
slipped under it.

By cutting unemployment benefits, the Conservatives are
enacting the very thing they claim to be trying to stop; reducing peoples’
chances of getting off benefits and into work, trapping them in a cycle of
poverty and state dependency.

The political justification of austerity has always been
tenuous. It relies on unfair stereotypes about vulnerable and working class
people in place of evidence.

Today, we have the evidence.

In light of this new
research, this Government can no longer justify its rhetoric about unemployment
benefit cuts.

If the Conservative party really
cares about supporting people who are seeking work, and fundamentally reducing
state dependency, it must urgently re-evaluate its policy on welfare and work.

Evidence-based research and public policy should inform
Government practice.

We know from countless studies that the Government would
reap higher rewards by investing in vulnerable and disadvantaged groups:
supporting single parents with child care access, improving education resources
in working class communities, and helping disabled people to gain the support
they need to find and hold down work.

For many people, the cruelty of benefit cuts has been all
too apparent from the start.

In light of this recent evidence, the Government
must now admit it got it wrong and act to repair the damage of welfare reform
while it still can.